Tokyo Bay bar boat on the Himiko, closed to walk-on passengers since 2023
Jicoo The Floating Bar has not sold a walk-on ticket since January 2023.
The operator’s boarding page still carries a suspension notice, the closure was announced from April 2023, and as of September 2026 the only way onto the boat is a private charter arranged by email.
Anything you read that lists Jicoo as a Thursday to Saturday bar is describing a service that stopped running more than three years ago.
While it ran, the format was unusual enough to be worth understanding.
Jicoo took the Himiko, the water bus designed by Leiji Matsumoto that works the Sumida River by day, and turned it into a night bar leaving Waters Takeshiba every hour.
A ¥3,000 floating pass bought unlimited loops under Rainbow Bridge for as long as you stayed on board, cocktails ran about ¥700 to ¥800, entry was 20 and over, and no reservation was possible or needed.
The Himiko has no roof deck, so the appeal was the glazing: you passed under the Rainbow Bridge deck and looked up at it through ceiling glass rather than across at it from a railing.
The final departure of the night killed the interior lights and let the bay do the work.
Waters Takeshiba was not the original pier.
Jicoo boarded at Hinode Pier and Odaiba Seaside Park for most of its life, on a half hourly shuttle at ¥2,500 and later ¥2,600, and that older schedule is the one most third party pages still reproduce.
The Tokyo Water Bus covers the same stretch of water in daylight from the same pier cluster, and the Tokyo Symphony Cruise sails Tokyo Bay from Hinode Pier on a normal evening timetable.
The bay is still bookable; the bar on it is not.
Jicoo the Floating Bar is not selling tickets. The Tokyo Bay bar boat suspended its public sailings from April 2023, the notice is still on the operator's boarding page as of September 2026, and only private charters for 20 or more are being taken. What follows is what the ¥3,000 floating pass actually bought, and what to board instead.
Jicoo Floating Bar Tokyo: Suspended Since 2023 – Jicoo the Floating Bar has run no public sailing since 2023.
What ¥3,000 bought aboard the Himiko, and the Tokyo Bay cruise to book now, from Tokyo Trip Guide.
Jicoo the Floating Bar has not sold a walk-on ticket since January 2023.
The Tokyo Bay bar boat suspended its regular service from April 2023, and that notice was still sitting on the operator’s boarding page when we checked it for Tokyo Trip Guide on 6 September 2026.
Private charters are still quoted by email; scheduled sailings are not.
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Jicoo the Floating Bar is not running scheduled sailings, and no restart date has appeared in more than three years.
The last regular departures on the operator’s own calendar were Friday and Saturday nights in January 2023, and the suspension notice went up from April 2023.
Tokyo Cruise Ship Co. (東京都観光汽船) still operates the vessels, which is why the Himiko keeps working the Sumida River in daylight while its night identity stays dark.
Two changes happened before the closure, and almost nothing online reflects either.
Jicoo moved its boarding pier from Hinode Pier to Waters Takeshiba, a different address 6 minutes on foot from Hamamatsucho Station.
It also dropped Thursdays and stopped calling at Odaiba Seaside Park, so the half-hourly shuttle that gives this page its title stopped running years before the bar itself did.
The Google listing still shows 4.6 stars from 42 reviews, and nearly every one of them was written before 2023.
¥3,000 bought a Jicoo floating pass on the last published schedule, and it did not include a drink.
The pass covered unlimited loops of about an hour from Waters Takeshiba on Friday and Saturday nights, with departures at 18:00, 19:00, and 20:00, and it stayed valid until you stepped ashore.
Cocktails ran roughly ¥700 to ¥800 at the bar, paid as you ordered.
The older Hinode Pier arrangement was cheaper and ran later.
A pass cost ¥2,500, then ¥2,600, and the Himiko crossed to Odaiba Seaside Park every half hour with the last boat docking back at Hinode at 23:00.
Event nights with a DJ or a live act were priced at ¥3,600 to ¥4,000 and did include one drink.
The floating bar label misled people in two specific ways.
There was no food at all, only a drinks list, so you ate before you boarded or you did not eat.
And the boat was 20 and over, with a dress code that turned away men in sandals or shorts.
The Himiko is a 2004 Leiji Matsumoto design, 114 gross tons and 30.5 metres long, and its glazing rather than its bar list is what made a Jicoo pass worth ¥3,000.
Almost every surface above the waterline is window, including large panels overhead, and unlike the newer Hotaluna there is no rooftop deck.
You watch Tokyo Bay from sea level through glass, which sounds like a downgrade and is not.
Boarding opened ten minutes before each departure and no seat was reserved, 70 of them on a hull rated for about 80 passengers.
The first people up the gangway effectively picked the night for everyone else.
Announcements were minimal: the Galaxy Express 999 character narration that plays on the daytime water bus gave way to a DJ or a lounge set, at a volume that still let a table talk.
Leaving Waters Takeshiba, the first thing on the water is the unlit tree line of Hama-rikyu Gardens off to one side, the only dark patch on the whole route.
Then Takeshiba Wharf and the passenger terminal, the Tokyo Tower lattice glowing inland, Hinode Pier sliding past on the same shore, and finally Shibaura Wharf, where the container cranes stand floodlit over the water.
The bay opens out.
Rainbow Bridge is ahead.
Rainbow Bridge is the photograph everyone takes on this route, and the angle is the reason.
You approach with the whole lit span filling the forward windows, then pass directly beneath it and look up through ceiling glass at the underside of the deck: girders, service lighting, the Yurikamome track structure, the parts of the bridge nobody photographs.
Thousands of people cross Rainbow Bridge every night.
Very few have seen its belly.
Past the bridge the boat runs along Odaiba Seaside Park, with the Statue of Liberty replica lit on the promenade and the Odaiba waterfront stacked behind it, then turns and does the whole thing again in reverse.
Sit on the landward side heading out, which puts Tokyo Tower, the Takeshiba terminal, and the Shibaura cranes on your window for the first half of the loop.
Seats were unreserved and the pass let you stay aboard, so the sensible move was to swap sides on the return leg rather than commit to one view for the night.
The one genuine complaint is reflections.
With the cabin lights up, the windows throw the room back at you and phone photos come out full of ceiling lamps, which is why the timing below mattered more than the seat.
The 20:00 departure was the one worth taking, because Jicoo dimmed the interior lights on the final run of the night.
With the cabin dark the glass stops reflecting, and the Odaiba illuminations, the bridge lighting, and the working lamps along Shibaura come through clean.
Season changed the value of the same ¥3,000 more than anything else did.
Sunset falls before 16:40 in late December, so all three departures were true night sailings; in June it is still light past 19:00, and the first two loops were dusk cruises that only the last one improved on.
Winter also brings the clearest air over the bay.
Weather cancelled Jicoo sailings rather than spoiling them.
The operator called boats off for typhoons and heavy weather and asked passengers to phone on the day for the current schedule, with no published wind threshold and no stated refund rule, which is the sort of gap you accept on a ¥3,000 ticket and would not on a ¥15,000 one.
Plain rain was survivable in a way it is not on an open deck: with no rooftop there was nothing to close, and a wet night cost you only streaked glass.
A 21:00 return also put you back at Hamamatsucho with room to spare, which is more than you can say for anyone still out when the last trains stop running.
The only Jicoo product still on sale is a private charter, and the boat on offer is the Hotaluna rather than the Himiko.
Charters run in an 18:00 to 21:30 window, the published minimum is 20 people, and enquiries go through the website contact form rather than the freephone number.
The Hotaluna is the bigger sister: a 2012 hull, 167 gross tons, 40 metres by 9, rated for about 120 passengers, with gull wing doors and the open rooftop deck the Himiko never had.
For a wedding after-party or a company night out it is a real option, and close to the only way to get a Matsumoto-designed vessel to yourself.
For two people it makes no sense.
No price is published, quotes come case by case, and you would be chartering a 40 metre boat to have a drink.
Book the Tokyo Symphony Cruise from Hinode Pier if you want an evening on Tokyo Bay you can actually reserve.
Boarding starts at ¥1,800, it sails the same stretch of water past Rainbow Bridge, and unlike Jicoo it serves food, takes bookings, and admits under-20s.
Hinode Pier is 3 minutes from Hinode Station on the Yurikamome, the pier Jicoo used for most of its life.
If you want the water in daylight and the lowest fare, the Sumida River water bus answers instead.
The ¥1,180 Asakusa to Hama-rikyu sailing already contains the garden’s admission, which makes it roughly a third of a Jicoo pass with a garden attached; it also finishes long before dark and nobody pours you anything.
On the Hinode to Odaiba leg the water bus sometimes runs the Hotaluna with its rooftop deck open, which is the one thing Jicoo could never offer.
For food and drink together on the water, book a yakatabune, the low-slung traditional dinner boat that serves tempura and beer while it sits off Odaiba.
That is the evening most people picture when they search for Jicoo, and it is the one Jicoo never provided.
Waters Takeshiba still earns the walk with Jicoo dark, because the same pier launches the daytime water bus and sits 6 minutes from Hamamatsucho Station on the JR Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines.
Ride the boat down to Odaiba in the afternoon, then stay for the evening instead of turning around at the pier.
Odaiba after sunset gives you the Rainbow Bridge view from the promenade at Odaiba Seaside Park, the Statue of Liberty replica lit on the waterfront, and the Unicorn Gundam standing outside DiverCity, which lights up and runs its transformation sequence in the evening.
Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station on the Yurikamome is 5 minutes’ walk from the park.
The other version keeps you on the river.
Come down from Asakusa by boat, step off at Hama-rikyu Gardens, and walk into Ginza for dinner, which is the spine of this couples’ plan built around three tight geographic loops.
Takeshiba, Hinode, and Odaiba Seaside Park all sit on that same water bus network, so every pier Jicoo ever used is still open even though the bar is not.
The views you are actually paying for. Red chips open our full guide to that spot.
| Sailing | Departs | Returns | Duration | Boarding adult | Boarding child | Meal package from | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First sailing (not currently running) | 18:00 | 19:00 | 60 minutes | ¥3,000 | Last published schedule before the April 2023 suspension, from Waters Takeshiba on Friday and Saturday nights. The floating pass covered every loop until you stepped ashore. | ||
| Second sailing (not currently running) | 19:00 | 20:00 | 60 minutes | ¥3,000 | Event nights replaced this timetable and charged ¥3,600 to ¥4,000 including one drink. | ||
| Final sailing (not currently running) | 20:00 | 21:00 | 60 minutes | ¥3,000 | The last run of the night dimmed the interior lights so the bay and bridge lighting carried the room. |
114 gross tons, 30.5m by 8.0m. Fully glazed teardrop hull with no roof deck, so the Rainbow Bridge pass is seen through side and ceiling glass. Works as a Tokyo Cruise water bus on the Sumida River by day.
167 gross tons, 40m by 9.0m, with gullwing doors and an open rooftop deck. This is the boat currently offered for Jicoo private charters, in a 18:00 to 21:30 window.
1-10-30 Kaigan, Minato City, Tokyo 105-0022
Takeshiba Station (Yurikamome), 3 minutes on foot; Hamamatsucho Station (JR Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines, Tokyo Monorail), 6 minutes
The final boarding pier before the suspension. Hourly departures loaded here and returned here; the Odaiba stop was dropped when sailings moved from Hinode Pier.
Directions2-7-104 Kaigan, Minato City, Tokyo 105-0022
Hinode Station (Yurikamome), 3 minutes on foot; Hamamatsucho Station south exit, 10 minutes
Jicoo's original boarding pier, used on the ¥2,500 and ¥2,600 floating pass era shuttle. Still active for Tokyo Cruise water buses and the Tokyo Symphony Cruise.
Directions1-4-1 Daiba, Minato City, Tokyo 135-0091
Odaiba-kaihinkoen Station or Daiba Station (Yurikamome), 5 minutes on foot
Second boarding point during the Hinode Pier years, with no staffed desk; crew opened the gate about ten minutes before departure. Not used on the final Waters Takeshiba schedule.
Directions
Tokyo Water Bus: Sumida River Cruise from Asakusa to Hamarikyu and Odaiba
Water bus / sightseeing boat
Tokyo Symphony Cruise: Tokyo Bay Lunch, Sunset and Dinner Cruise from Hinode Pier
Restaurant ship / dinner cruise
Yakatabune Tokyo Cruise: Traditional Dinner Boat Cruise on the Sumida River and Tokyo Bay
Yakatabune (traditional dinner boat)
Nihonbashi River Cruise: Edo Waterways by Boat from Nihonbashi Pier
Small river cruise / canal tour
Fares and timetable last verified on September 6, 2026. Check the operator's live status before you travel.
Jicoo The Floating Bar is not open for public sailings in 2026. The operator’s boarding page has carried a suspension notice since April 2023, and the last regular Friday and Saturday departures on the official calendar were in January 2023. Private charters on the Hotaluna are still being accepted by email, with no restart date announced for walk-on service.
Jicoo The Floating Bar charged ¥3,000 for a floating pass on its final published schedule, which covered unlimited loops until you stepped off the boat. Event nights ran ¥3,600 to ¥4,000 and included one drink. Cocktails cost roughly ¥700 to ¥800 on board. The earlier Hinode Pier fare was ¥2,500, later ¥2,600.
Instead of Jicoo The Floating Bar, book the Tokyo Symphony Cruise from Hinode Pier for an evening Tokyo Bay sailing with a bar and dining service, or ride the Tokyo Water Bus between Hinode and Odaiba in daylight for the same Rainbow Bridge pass at a far lower fare. A yakatabune covers the drinks and dinner combination.
Jicoo was one of the better cheap nights out in Tokyo, and it is gone in every way that matters to a visitor.
¥3,000 bought unlimited loops of about an hour under Rainbow Bridge on a boat the city otherwise runs as a daytime commuter service, with cocktails at roughly ¥700 and nothing to book in advance.
No other operator on Tokyo Bay has replaced that combination of price, informality, and hull design.
The rating reflects what you can actually do with this today, which is very little.
Unless you are chartering a boat for a group of twenty or more, Jicoo is a name to cross off your shortlist rather than a night to plan around.
The operator has published no restart date in more than three years, and the pages still advertising a Thursday to Saturday bar at Hinode Pier are running on pre-2020 information.
